All About Pinkpop Festival

Landgraaf, Limburg, Netherlands

Open-air

XXL – 50k+

Rock, Pop

$$$

International

+3 Days

Pinkpop is one of the oldest and longest-running music festivals in the world.

Blue-blooded industry names such as Pearl Jam, Fleetwood Mac, Coldplay, and Justin Bieber performed on the festival’s stages. With its A-list headliners, planning expertise, and all-inclusive approach, Pinkpop Festival is a big gun in the live music industry.

Here’s everything you need to know about Pinkpop.

Pinkpop Festival was founded by Jan Smeets

Pinkpop wouldn’t have ever seen daylight if there wasn’t Jan Smeets. Together with Hans van Beers, Wim Wennekes, and Frits van Reysen, Smeets brought Pinkpop’s first edition to life.

Besides being the man who pulls the strings, Smeets is also one of Pinkpop’s annual presenters. Having created such a successful venture, the Mr Pinkpop documentary explored his passion for the industry.

Smeets recently retired from the position of CEO of Pinkpop in 2020 at the age of 75. 

Tickets for the very first Pinkpop were the definition of cheap

Tickets for the first Pinkpop edition, which were released more than half a century ago, cost 2.5 guilders, which is equivalent to $1. Prices have now increased to about €230 for a three-day pass, which also includes a tent to stay overnight.

Pinkpop was named after Pentecost

The festival is usually held on the weekend of Pentecost (Pinksteren in Dutch), hence the name Pinkpop. The “pop” part of the name comes from popular music but also means doll in Dutch.

This was the inspiration behind Pinkpop’s logo – the trademark pink-wearing doll. 

In 2008, the festival strayed from Pentecost weekend for the first time due to schedule. The management postponed the event a week later, and despite the sudden put-off, the postponement worked out in their favor.

Pinkpop attracted such a huge audience that the 2008 edition has been recorded as the largest turnout to date.

The music event appears in the Guinness World Book of Records

Pinkpop is the longest-running annual dedicated pop and rock music festival in the world, according to the Guinness World Book of Records. The festival was awarded the title back in 2012 and has held it ever since.

At that time, Pinkpop Festivals had been held for 43 consecutive years and attracted more than two million unique visitors and 644 different acts. If that isn’t a festival with experience, we don’t know what is.

Pinkpop Festival now hosts seven times more people than when it began

When it first kicked off, the festival industry was an untapped market. Artists were often performing for free, and attendees didn’t know how to name those concert-like events, where you could see three different bands in a day.

In this cultural context, music festivals didn’t attract jaw-dropping attendees number. But Pinkpop was an exception. In its humble beginning, the festival attracted 10,000 music fans every day.

Coming a long way since 1970, Pinkpop Festival now hosts around 70,000 visitors daily and has performances spanning four different stages.

Music legends are always part of Pinkpop’s lineups

In 2014, The Rolling Stones, Arctic Monkeys, Metallica, John Mayer and The Kooks all shared the main stage across three days of Pinkpop. Mind you, these roaring names represent just one edition of Pinkpop’s power.

Other A-list names that performed at the Dutch festival include Imagine Dragons, Lenny Kravitz, and Fleetwood Mac.

In 2016, a “Bad Weather Fund” was created thanks to Pinkpop

A nightmare-like situation in 2016 almost canceled Pinkpop. Bad weather turned Pinkpop’s grounds into a mucky mess, but retired Dutch politician Jet Bussemaker created a “Bad Weather Fund” for the festival.

Since then, Dutch festivals that were facing financial loss due to bad weather conditions could apply for a subsidy. 

To keep this scheme sustainable, festivals that benefit from the fund need to return the money once they are profitable again.

A celestial event took place during one of the performances

During the Foo Fighters’ performance in 2018, a meteor disintegrated behind the main stage, leaving the audience in awe as it lit up the sky. The rock band was performing Monkey Wrench when it happened, and it was luckily caught on video.

Observed from other countries such as Germany and France, it was reported that the disintegration took place near Liège, Belgium at 11:11 PM – a lucky sign, maybe?